


beautiful, wonderful

by astrogyaru



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Cecil Is Not Described, Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrogyaru/pseuds/astrogyaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil has seen a floating cat and a dragon and a boy with two heads but he has never seen an ocean before. (Carlos takes Cecil to see the ocean.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	beautiful, wonderful

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I'm putting up while working out the last bits of the next chapter of my other fic. Inspired by talk of Cecil seeing the ocean on my dash.

"Are you okay?"

Cecil is wringing his hands, stopping abruptly when Carlos speaks. His brow is still tense as he puts on a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I’m… fine."

"Are you afraid?" Carlos asks gently, pulling him closer. His hand is at his waist and they sit on the rocky shore, cold and shivering, but warm, so warm where they touch,

"I’ve never seen it before," Cecil says. The words have been his mantra the whole trip. So many things he hasn’t seen before. _Oh, the Space Needle, I’ve never seen it before, is it really that tall?_ (It isn’t). _Oh, the Cascade Mountains, I’ve never seen them before, are you sure they’re really real?_ (They are).

Cecil speaks quietly, saying words he knows he’s said enough times for it to be their little joke. Cecil has seen a floating cat and a dragon and a boy with two heads but he has never seen an ocean before.

"It’s so big. I couldn’t have imagined it would be so big. It’s as big as the sky.” Cecil can’t seem to tear his eyes away from it, and Carlos rubs circles into his hands and keeps quiet, because telling Cecil then that the sky is actually bigger might not be the best move on his part.

"Carlos!" Cecil says abruptly, harshly, with so much worry in his face. He turns to him and practically screams. "There’s this whole other void! Just sitting here on the Earth, pooling and sloshing. A whole other vast, endless mystery waiting to swallow us with… with unknowingness and drown us in fear."

Carlos only shakes his head. “It’s… it won’t do that. The ocean is smaller than space, much smaller.” _Ah yes, a good way to word that._

Cecil sits tensely, his back straight, his eyes alert. He is wary of the salty water lapping at the shore, and it would have been easy for Carlos to just laugh at him, to ask if he’s crazy.  
  
But Carlos knows better than that. Maybe Carlos a year ago might have done that, but now, sitting here with his trembling Cecil, he couldn’t imagine being so cruel.

"You’re not afraid of space, right?"  
  
Cecil turns back to the sea and is silent as he looks over the vast expanse again, like it would have the answer.  
  
"No, I am. Aren’t you?" His words are soft, and he says them with a little smile.  
  
The void is massive and heavy in the night and they have sat beneath it before, quiet and scared.  
  
"Of course." Carlos whispers back. "But it’s okay. We’re okay." He pauses. "We’ve always been okay, right?"  
  
"Mmhmm," Cecil hums and looks ahead. His brow is still tense, but in a studious way. He doesn’t look scared. He is, though, but he is okay. Carlos rubs circles onto his hands and he sighs, resting his head on a broad shoulder, feeling the warm blood rushing under there and Carlos’ pulse beneath his ear.  
  
They sit in salty, misty air for a while longer, too cold to do much else at the sea today. They leave, eventually, walking together up the sandy slope and Cecil stumbles and laughs, falling, as they reach the top. Carlos catches him and he turns to look back, still in his arms, still laughing softly.  
  
"What a beautiful, _wonderful_ mystery.”


End file.
